Paging the Bimmer crowd.

[Doggiedog]

I have an 09 335i with 17K miles.

You should have them check the HPFP. I've had 3 of them replaced. Make sure you have the latest firmware. It takes something like 6 hours for them to program. The HPFP is covered to 10 years or 120K miles I believe but you should have them check it out nonetheless. I've also had the fuel injectors replaced. The Logic7 stereo needed to be fixed. I've had tons of things go bad on my car in a short span of time.

I would also listen closely to the engine. If you hear a ticking sound, you'll need to get that looked at too. My car ticks very loudly but I've been too lazy to bring my car to the dealer (it's over 30 miles away).

I'm not sure where you live but like it was mentioned before RFT are pretty bad. They are also very expensive. If you have a lot of potholes in your area, watch out. I've popped 5 of them. Once I wrecked both tires on the driver's side on one hole. It sounded like an explosion. I was lucky I had tire insurance bc it would have cost me over $900. And again, either get a small spare or a repair kit. I got unlucky with a snow tire I was using and had a sidewall tear once so I couldn't use the kit but it may come in handy.

If you can overlook those issues, the car is a blast to drive. It's no TA but it's got some good performance and is very refined. I've put a lot of extra stuff in my car like LED Angel Eyes, M3 spoiler, M-tech rear diffuser, M3 6 speed shift knob, black grills, yellow fogs and a few other things I can't remember. When your car goes off warranty SSSnail mentioned the JB3 (Juicebox3). That might be a nice mod to your car. It will seriously improve your engine HP and make it faster than a stock M3. Since you are looking at a Xi model, you may want to look at getting new suspension parts to make it a little more sporty.

You should check out the E90post Xi forums for more info.

Here are some pics of my car:

Standard AE vs white AE and black grill.

Rear

 

[Saga]

I have an 09 335i with 17K miles.

You should have them check the HPFP. I've had 3 of them replaced. Make sure you have the latest firmware. It takes something like 6 hours for them to program. The HPFP is covered to 10 years or 120K miles I believe but you should have them check it out nonetheless. I've also had the fuel injectors replaced. The Logic7 stereo needed to be fixed. I've had tons of things go bad on my car in a short span of time.

I would also listen closely to the engine. If you hear a ticking sound, you'll need to get that looked at too. My car ticks very loudly but I've been too lazy to bring my car to the dealer (it's over 30 miles away).

I'm not sure where you live but like it was mentioned before RFT are pretty bad. They are also very expensive. If you have a lot of potholes in your area, watch out. I've popped 5 of them. Once I wrecked both tires on the driver's side on one hole. It sounded like an explosion. I was lucky I had tire insurance bc it would have cost me over $900. And again, either get a small spare or a repair kit. I got unlucky with a snow tire I was using and had a sidewall tear once so I couldn't use the kit but it may come in handy.

If you can overlook those issues, the car is a blast to drive. It's no TA but it's got some good performance and is very refined. I've put a lot of extra stuff in my car like LED Angel Eyes, M3 spoiler, M-tech rear diffuser, M3 6 speed shift knob, black grills, yellow fogs and a few other things I can't remember. When your car goes off warranty SSSnail mentioned the JB3 (Juicebox3). That might be a nice mod to your car. It will seriously improve your engine HP and make it faster than a stock M3. Since you are looking at a Xi model, you may want to look at getting new suspension parts to make it a little more sporty.

You should check out the E90post Xi forums for more info.

Amazingly detailed information - thank you. It's going in Monday to have the HPFP checked. Additionally I'm having them take a look at a few things for me - the mp3 player appears to randomly give a disc error (is that what you referred to above?) and the garage door opener LED does not light up so I cannot determine if the LED is bad or not, but I've been unable to program either of my garage doors so I'm assuming the module is just defective.

Once the warranty expires if I still intend to own the car (which is a big if - the wife has driven it and has now expressed that she would like to drive it and give her car to our daughter in the future, odds are she'll take the 335xi and I'll get a new zoom zoom toy 3 years from now) I will definitely invest into performance mods, but for the duration of the warranty I'm going to leave it bone stock.

 

[Doggiedog]

No. My issue with my stereo was worse. It wouldn't turn on. Nothing I did would turn it on when I wanted. It would randomly turn on while driving but not when I wanted. It was weird driving around just hearing engine noises. I brought it in to the dealership and the problem only came up once but it was only for about 10 secs. It may have been a firmware issue.

I don't have a garage door so I'm not sure. I installed an autodimming mirror/garage door opener myself and have a small issue in that the LED compass never turns off. It's most likely my fault when putting it in but I don't want to go through the hassle of fixing it. It took me 6 hours to do and I doubt the drain on the battery is very high.

FYI: One thing you may not know or realize is that the 3 series does not come with an alarm standard.

 

[Saga]

Mine actually has the alarm. Seems the previous owner added a few bells and whistles - car alarm and backup sensor were added AFAIK.

As far as specs go I've had a hard time determining just what it does NOT have.. outside of the woodgrain finish, which bothers me visually anyway and I would have replaced it with the brushed look if it came with it. I have to admit though, I was surprised that a vehicle with a push button ignition doesn't have remote start..

Additionally, I fibbed a little. The surrounds on the 335xi are amazingly clear and the OEM amp in the truck appears to do a very good job. Generally I'd replace with aftermarket surrounds and a digital amp but in this case even at very loud volumes I don't detect any distortion and very clear sound (I'm an audiophile for sure). I'll probably end up putting a small corner custom sub (likely something small like a shallow 10" p3 or similar) in the trunk for some added oomph, but I'm a little old for bass overloads.

 

[Doggiedog]

I went the wood way. The brushed aluminum dents and I've got 2 kids so I thought it would be a bad idea. Remote start is an option but unfortunately you cannot add it aftermarket since it will require recabling your car. I didn't know about it and would have gotten it since it was a $400 option. I'm a bit of an audiophile too and I'm pretty satisfied with the Logic 7 stereo. Yeah, bass could be better but it's not horrible.

If you want your car to look better I would recommend getting LUX angel eyes. They are quite nice. LUX 4 or 5 I believe they differ in temperatures. One is more blue than the other but I forget which one.

 

[KIAman]

Congrats. You got a steal of a deal. The only major thing with 335 is the HPFP which BMW will warrant for 10 years/125,000 miles regardless of your other warranty.

Also, RFT suck big time. I bubbled my sidewall hitting potholes. I now run non-RFT. I can call for service if need be.

I'm lucky I got an E90 330i with no HPFP issues and have had an almost perfect maintenance record.

Have fun!

 

[Saga]

Honestly, this is what really finalized my purchase:

http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/Owner/BMWUltimateService/Default.aspx

Until Dec of 2014 I have free everything.. repairs, oil changes, etc. $0 out of pocket. For anything. Period.

I've genuinely been so amazed at how much this car has impressed me. I've owned sports cars most of my life and I generally simply brushed off luxury vehicles as too cushy for my tastes, sacrificing too much in the way of driving enjoyment for luxury. I can say outright with absolute authority that I'm simply awestruck at the level of detail that went into this car. The wife drove it around yesterday for work/errands and was just floored as well. We have 5 cars in the household, and after driving the 335xi around for a day the wife has concluded that she now wants one, and this woman has NEVER been impressed with a car in her life - she absolutely HATES driving the ZR1 for example.

You never need to remove the key from your keychain/pocket/purse/whatever - the car detects proximity to the remote and opens when you pull the handle - and locks if you hold your finger over a touch sensitive area for long enough - same for the trunk and the gas tank lid. You literally NEVER need to even think about the key at all as it never needs to leave your pocket for any conceivable way. It has some of the most comfortable bucket seats I've ever sat in with 7 different individual adjustments, and up till now I've ALWAYS raved about how comfortable I found the ZR1 seats are, especially in comparison to things like my neighbor's SRT10 Viper (those seats are just awful). The suspension is stiffer than I expected for the platform, but significantly more comfortable than I hoped for - and easily modified to fit my particular tastes with aftermarket components if/when ever necessary. The ride is quiet, the OEM stereo is simply the most impressive I've witnessed to date, and all of the "little" things about this car add up to a massive package of win; for example, part of my purchase agreement was a same-day registration change (not typical, generally around here they get around to it in 1-2 weeks at your inconvenience for scheduling, but I always have none of that) and when I was playing with the controls I hit the BMW TeleService button (which is basically their variant of OnStar) and it connected me to the major BMW dealer about 5 miles away from me automatically and they knew me by name the day after registration.

All in all I'm concluding it's a big win here. I never thought I would ditch domestic for a German car, but at this point if this experience continues to exceed my expectations in every way for the duration of my warranty it's very possible I've become a BMW owner for life. You simply don't know what you're missing by driving around normal cars all day. I'd like to thank everyone who helped me make an educated decision, you've made me a very happy camper in the daily driver department.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Congratulations! :thumbsup:

Now pictures are due

 

[Demo24]

:thumbsup: I was incredibly impressed by the mostly base model (talking 4cyl of ~200hp here) e90 I drove a couple of years ago. Made me want one quite badly. At the moment I really want a 335d, but going to need a good job before that can happen. ^_^

 

[dandruff]

congrats ! great choice ! make sure u keep up with latest firmware updates ... and join the local bmwcca ...

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Congratulations. I love my bimmer, and while parts and labor is ~20% more expensive I feel like ride quality is 200% better than the rest.

 

[Doggiedog]

Yeah def put some pics up! Join the e90post forum. You'll get addicted to them. Lots of knowledgeable people there. Put some money aside for mods. There are so many you can do to your car to get it just right. You've got the Xi model which doesn't come with sports suspension. You can get the suspension even tighter with a few mods. Just remember to religiously avoid the potholes!